1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of amplifiers, and particularly to current-mode instrumentation amplifiers.
2. Description of the Related Art
An instrumentation amplifier (IA) is a type of amplifier that has been specifically designed to have characteristics suitable for use in measurement and test equipment, such as low DC offset, high common mode rejection (CMR), and high input impedance. Such an amplifier is typically used when a user needs to look at a differential signal in the presence of a common mode signal, which can often be larger than the differential signal of interest.
A well-known IA is shown in FIG. 1. This topology, which employs three operational amplifiers, is commonly used with bipolar and JFET processes to provide an IA with good DC precision. However, this topology has several limitations. For example, the design requires at least six resistors, which generally must be trimmed to achieve the matching required to meet precision specifications such as CMR and gain error. Also, each of the three amplifiers is usually trimmed to ensure good overall DC specifications. Both of these requirements limit the minimum die size of this topology.
The input common-mode voltage and the overall gain of the IA of FIG. 1 limit the range of valid output voltages. The resultant limitation on output swing becomes especially problematic with low supply voltages. Also, when operated from a single supply, the IA's reference pin (Vref) must be driven by a low impedance source to maintain good CMR. This is typically done with an additional external amplifier 10 which drives the reference pin to a voltage within the valid output swing of the IA. This external amp adds to the total board space needed for the IA, as well as its total solution cost.
One approach that overcomes some of these limitations is exemplified by the INA326 IA from Texas Instruments. Here, current-mode signal processing is used to provide rejection of common-mode input voltage and power supply variation without the need for accurately matched resistors. However, this design employs four current mirrors, each of which contributes an output-referred voltage error due to device mismatch within each of the mirrors.